Best Ukulele Brands for Beginners

The ukuleles from these brands mostly fall within the $50 to $100 range, which I feel is a good budget for beginning players.

These brands all have great online reviews, but my opinions are largely based on the fact that I personally own (or have owned) a ukulele from nearly all of these manufacturers. I’m working on writing individual posts for each brand; check the reviews section for updates.

The brands below are all surprisingly close in terms of overall built quality, and none of them jumped out to me as being noticeably better (or worse) than the others. They’re listed in no particular order.

Aklot

Aklot’s ukuleles offer a unique feature you won’t find with most of the other brand mentioned here: a solid top.

Most beginner ukes are made entirely out of laminated wood, which is a kind of thin, instrument-grade plywood. Manufacturers do this because laminated wood is cheaper and easier to work with.

Solid wood resonates more freely than laminated wood, so using a solid piece of wood for a ukulele’s top helps improve the tone.

I’m not sure how Aklot is able to make a solid top ukulele and sell it for this price, especially with the included accessories. But as the owner of a tenor-sized Aklot AKT26 I can verify that their ukes are high quality and are an excellent value.

Best Intermediate Ukulele Brands

For the purposes of this article, I’m defining “intermediate ukuleles” as models that cost between $500 and $1000.

Ukes in this price range will generally have a few key features:

All-solid wood construction (usually koa)

Top-notch craftsmanship

Excellent playability

These ukes are the next natural step for players who are getting more serious about the uke and are looking to upgrade, but this doesn’t mean you have to spend $500 to get a good uke! Most of the brands and models I covered in the “beginner” section are great for intermediate players as well.

Martin

While these days Martin is mostly known for their high-quality acoustic guitars, the company has a rich history of uke-building that goes all the way back to 1917.

Martin has a number of different models, but their most notable intermediate ukes are the C1K and T1K. These all-solid koa concert and tenor models don’t have a lot of fancy cosmetic features, but they do offer Martin’s legendary build quality and tone.

Best High-End Ukulele Brands

Martin

In addition to the more affordable models I mentioned above, Martin also makes a handful of beautiful high-end ukuleles like the 2K Concert and 2K Tenor or the ultra-fancy 5K. You can see the full lineup on Martin’s website.

Most of these ukes are well above the $1500 price point, but if you’re serious about the ukulele (or have money to burn) they’re worth the price.

Kamaka, Ko’olau, Kanile’a, and KoAloha

These four builders are commonly known as the “Four Ks.” They’re all based in Hawaii, and collectively they produce some of the finest ukuleles money can buy.

Kamaka HF-3 D2I Tenor Deluxe 2

Most of these builders have basic models that start out around $1000, but the prices go up quickly when you get into ukes with features like high-grade koa or ornate inlays and binding.

Independent & Custom Builders

In addition to the high-end brands listed above, there are a number of small, independent builders. These are often very small operations producing small-run or one-of-a-kind ukuleles, often with exotic tonewoods and lots of ornamentation.

Many of these independent builders will make ukes to their customer’s exact specifications, although a full custom build can easily run into the thousands of dollars.

The number of small builders is always changing as new people come on the scene and others retire or move on to other interests. It’s worth shopping around because every builder has their own signature style, but here are a handful of well-established names to check out if you’re interested in going this route: